In the manufacture of computers and other electronic devices and assemblies, connectors must often be picked up and moved from one location to another. For example, a connector may be picked up and placed on a printed circuit board, then soldered to the printed circuit board. Large connectors are typically picked up with a clip, and small connectors are typically picked up with a vacuum suction device. Such small connectors typically include mini board-to-board connectors, CPU socket connectors, and the like. The vacuum suction device creates a vacuum against a smooth area on the connector. This vacuum provides a force so that the vacuum suction device can pick up the connector and move it to an appropriate position for soldering, connecting, etc.
Many connectors do not have a very large smooth surface area and thus are not able to be directly picked up with a vacuum suction device. As such, pickup caps are often used to facilitate picking up and moving such connectors. The pickup caps connect to the electrical connector and provide a smooth area for the vacuum suction device to pickup the cap-connector assembly. Once the connector has been moved into an appropriate position and soldered (or otherwise connected) to the printed circuit board (or other electronic assembly), the cap can be removed.
A conventional pickup cap includes a smooth solid surface area in the center of the pickup cap to allow the vacuum suction device to pickup the cap. Providing the smooth surface in the center of the cap allows the vacuum suction device to pick up the cap with a single suction head and to keep the cap-connector assembly balanced during movement. This arrangement of a center smooth surface on a pickup cap, however, may have disadvantages which have previously been unidentified.